the esteem of Trajan, who took pleasure in conversing with him, and made him ride with him in his triumphal chariot. There are still extant eighty of Dio's orations, and some other of his works. The best edition of which is that of Hermand Samuel Rainerius, in 1750, in folio. In 1800 Gilbert Wakefield published a translation of some part of Dio.

CAIUS JULIUS SOLIÑUS, a Latin grammarian and historian, born at Rome. His Polyhistor is a collection of historical and geographical remarks on the most celebrated places of antiquity. Pliny is often quoted in it, and it is written so much in Pliny's style, that he has been called Pliny's ape. The best edition is that of Salmasius, November, 1777.

POMPEIUS FESTUS, a celebrated grammarian ofantiquity, who abridged a work of Verrius Flaccus; but took such liberties in castrating and criticising, as Gerard Vossius observes, are not favourable to the reputation of his author. A complete edition of his fragments was published by M. Dacier in 1681, for the use of the Dauphin. Scaliger says, that Festus is an author of great use to those who would attain the Latin tongue with

accuracy.

POLEMON, a sophist of Laodicea, in Asia Minor, in the reign of Adrian. He was often sent to the emperor with an embassy from his countrymen, which he executed with great success. He was greatly favoured by Adrian, from whom he exacted much money. In the fifty-sixth year of his age he buried himself alive, being frantic with a fit of the gout. He wrote declamations in Greek.

ONKELOS, surnamed the PROSELYTE, a famous rabbi, and the author of the Chaldee Targum on the Pentateuch. He flourished in the time of Jesus Christ, according to the Jewish writers. The Talmudists tell us that he assisted at the funeral of Gamaliel, and was at a prodigious expense to make it magnificent.

HISTORY.

SCRIBONIUS, a Roman historian, who flourished about A. D. 22, and wrote Annals. The best edition of his work is that of Patav. 4to, 1655.

FLAVIUS JOSEPHUS, the celebrated historian of the Jews, was of noble birth, by his father Mattathias, descended from the high priests, and by his mother of the blood royal of the Maccabees. He was born A. D. 37, under Caligula, and lived under Domitian. At sixteen years of age he joined the sect of the Essenes, and then the Pharisees; and having been successful in a journey to Rome, upon his return to Judæa he was made captain-general of the Galileans. Being taken prisoner by Vespasian, he foretold his coming to the empire, and

his own deliverance by his means. He accompanied Titus at the siege of Jerusalem, and wrote his Wars of the Jews, which Titus ordered to be put in the public library. He afterwards lived at Rome, where he enjoyed the privileges of a Roman citizen, and where the emperor loaded him with favours, and granted him large pensions. Besides the above work, he wrote twenty books of Jewish antiquities, which he finished under Domitian. Two books against Appian. An elegant discourse on the martyrdom of the Maccabees. His own life. These works are excellently written in Greek. The best edition of this author is that of Hudson, Oxon. 2 vols. fol. Josephus has been translated into English by L'Estrange and Whiston.

AULUS CREMUTIUS CORDUS, a Roman senator and historian, who lived under Augustus and Tiberius. He wrote the history of the civil wars of Rome. An expression in this work was the occasion of his death. Tacitus thus relates the matter. "In the consulship of Cornelius Cossus and Asinius Agrippa, A.D. 25, Cremutius Cordus was impeached for a crime hitherto unheard of, that of having, in his annals, where he gives the eulogy of M. Brutus, called C. Cassius the last of the Romans. His accusers were Satrius Secundus, and Pinarius Natta, dependants of Sejanus; which circumstance, and the severe countenance with which the emperor heard his defence, were fatal to the culprit." Tacitus then proceeds to give the exculpatory speech of Cordus, which is a strong and spirited assertion of historical liberty. It concludes, "Posterity will pay to every man his due honour, nor, if I am condemned, will there be wanting those who will cherish the memory, not only of Brutus and Cassius, but of me also." To this noble confidence he was entitled by his virtue and talents. * Seneca, in a treatise on consolation addressed to Marcia, the daughter of Cordus, has preserved several memorials, which ought not to be forgotten. He had particularly offended Sejanus by some free expressions concerning him, one of which was uttered on occasion of the decree for placing the statue of that detestable favourite in Pompey's theatre, when rebuilt after being burnt down. "Now," exclaimed Cordus, "the theatre has indeed perished!" Finding that he should probably be condemned, he determined to put an end to his life by abstinence; but as he wished to conceal his intention from his beloved daughter, he made use of the warm bath, and ordered his food to be set in his bed-chamber, which, when alone, he threw out of the window. On the fourth day of his abstinence, feeling himself much debilitated, he sent for his daughter, and embracing her, apologized for keeping this long secret from her; adding, "I am now half-way on the road; you neither ought to call me back, nor can you do it." He then caused the lights to be taken away; and while they were

debating what was to be further done in the case, he quietly escaped by death from his persecutors. The servile senate ordered his books to be burned, but many copies were concealed; and his daughter afterwards honoured herself by her pious cares to make them as public as possible. From Seneca's character of them, their loss to modern times is greatly to be regretted. "You have well deserved," he says to Marcia, "of Roman literature and of posterity, to whom will descend a faithful record of events, which cost its author so dear; you have well deserved of himself, whose memory will live and flourish as long as it is thought worth while to know the history of Rome; as long as there shall remain any one who shall wish to recur to the acts of his ancestors; any one who shall be desirous of knowing what a Roman once was; what, when all necks were bowed beneath the Sejanian yoke, was the character of an unconquerable spirit, free in his head, his heart, his hand." The only remaining composition of Cordus is an eulogy of Cicero, preserved in the Suasoria of M. Seneca. He is referred to by Suetonius, and Pliny the Elder.

QUINTUS CURTIUS, a Latin historian, who wrote the life of Alexander the Great, in ten books, of which the two first are not extant, but are so well supplied by Freinshemius, that the loss is scarcely regretted. When this writer lived, is not certain, but by his style he is supposed to have lived near the Augustan age; though some imagine the work to have been composed in Italy, about 300 years ago, and the name of Quintus Curtius fictitiously prefixed. Cardinal du Perron was so great an admirer of this work, as to declare one page of it to be worth thirty of Tacitus; yet M. le Clerc, at the end of his Art of Criticism, has charged the writer with great ignorance, and many contradictions. He has nevertheless many qualities as a writer, which will make him admired and applauded.

The best editions of his works are the Elzevir, 1653; Freinshemius, 1643, 2 vols. 8vo. and Cellarius, 1696, 12mo. There is a good English translation, by Digby in 2 vols. 12mo.

CAIUS CORNELIUS TACITUS, a celebrated Roman historian, and one of the greatest men of his time, born about the year 60. He applied himself early to the bar, in which he gained high reputation. Having married the daughter of Agricola, the road to public honours was open to him, under Vespasian and Titus; but during the sanguinary tyranny of Domitian, he and his friend Pliny retired from public affairs. The reign of Nerva restored these luminaries of literature to Rome, and Tacitus was engaged in 101, to pronounce the funeral oration of the venerable Virginius Rufus, the colleague of the emperor in the consulship, and afterwards succeeded him as consul, A. D. 97. It is supposed that he died in the end of the reign of Trajan.

His works which remain are five books of his History. His Annals. A Treatise on the different Nations who then inhabited Germany. The Life of Agricola. A Treatise on Eloquence. No ancient author has obtained a more splendid reputation than Tacitus. Kings, princes, and authors of all ranks have read and admired him; though a spirit of liberty runs through his whole works. Never were description and sentiment so beautifully blended, nor the actions and the characters of men delineated with such precision. In short, he has all the merits of other authors without their defects.

The best edition of his works is that of Brotier, 1771, 4 vols. 4to.; and of the English translations, that by Murphy.

APPIAN, an eminent writer of the Roman history in Greek, under the reign of Trajan and Adrian. He was a native of Alexandria in Egypt; whence he went to Rome, and distinguished himself so well as an advocate, that he was chosen one of the procurators of the empire, and the government of a province was committed to him. He did not complete the Roman history in a continued series; but wrote distinct histories of all nations, that had been conquered by the Romans, in which he placed every thing relating to those nations, in the proper order of time. His style is plain and simple. He has shown the greatest knowledge of military affairs, and the happiest talent at describing them of any of the historians; for while we read his work, we in a manner see the battles he describes. Of all this voluminous work there remains only what treats of the Punic, Syrian, Parthian, Mithridatic, and Spanish wars, with those against Hannibal, the civil wars, and the wars in Illyricum, and some fragments of the Celtic or Gallic wars. They were published at Geneva in-1592, folio, at Amsterdam in 1670, 2 vols. 8vo. and at Leipsic, in 3 vols. 8vo. 1784.

LUCIUS ANNÆUS FLORUS, a Latin historian of the same family, with Seneca and Lucan. He flourished in the reigns of Trajan and Adrian; and wrote an abridgement of the Roman history, of which there have been many editions. It is composed in a florid and poetical style; and is rather a panegyric on many of the great actions of the Romans, than a faithful and correct recital of their history. He also wrote poetry, and entered the lists against the emperor Adrian, who satirically_reproached him with frequenting places of dissipation. The best edition of his works is that of Duker, 2 vols. 8vo. 1722.

CAIUS SUETONIUS TRANQUILLUS, a famous Latin historian, was born at Rome, and became secretary to the emperor Adrian, about A. D. 118, but that post was taken from him three years after, for not showing the empress Sabina all the respect she deserved. During his disgrace he composed many works, which are lost. Those extant, are his History of the XII Cæsars, and a part of his Treatise of the Illustrious

Grammarians and Rhetoricians. Pliny the Younger was his intimate friend, and persuaded him to publish his books. His History of the XII Cæsars, has been much commended by many of the literati. He represents, in a series of curious particulars, without digressions or reflections, the actions of the emperors, exposing their deformity, yet mentions their good qualities, but the horrid dissoluteness and obscene actions he relates of Tiberius, Caligula, Nero, &c. have made made some say, that he wrote the lives of the emperors, with the same licentiousness with which they lived. The edition of this history by Grævius at Utrecht, in 1672, with the excellent commentaries of Torrentius and Casaubon, and the notes of some other learned critics, is much esteemed. Other good editions are those of Patin, Basil, 1675, 4to.; of Grævius, 1691, 4to.; and of Pitiscus, 1714. There is an English translation, by Thomson, 8vo.

PAMPHILA, an ancient Grecian authoress, who flourished in Nero's reign, and wrote a general history in thirty-three books, much commended by the ancients, but not extant,

FABIUS RUSTICUS, an historian in the age of Claudius and Nero. He was intimate with Seneca; and the encomiums which Tacitus passes upon his style, make us regret the loss of his compositions.

SERVILIUS NONIANUS, a Latin historian, who flourished under Nero, and wrote a history of Rome, which is lost. POMPEIUS SATURNINUS, a Roman historian, poet, and orator, who flourished in the reign of Trajan. Pliny mentions him with great approbation, and always consulted him before he published his own works.

ABDIAS OF BABYLON, one of the boldest legend writers, who boasted he had seen our Saviour, that he was one of the seventy-two disciples, had been witness of the actions and prayers at the deaths of several of the apostles, and had followed into Persia St. Simon and St. Jude, who, he said, made him the first bishop of Babylon. His book entitled Historia certaminis Apostolici, was published by Wolfgang Lazius, at Basil, 1551; and it has since borne several impressions in different places.

HALICARNASSENSIS DIONYSIUS junior, flourished, according to Suidas, under the emperor Adrian, and wrote twenty-six books of the "History of Musicians," in which he celebrated not only the great performers on the flute and cithara, but those who had risen to eminence by every species of poetry.

MUSIC.

THEODORUS, an Athenian flute-maker, the father of Isocrates, the orator. How great the demand was at this time for